Merle Erickson

Merle Erickson is a Professor of Accounting and the Director of the Executive Education Program on Mergers and Acquisitions at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

An expert in complex tax and Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) accounting issues, he has extensive testifying experience in high-profile cases in front of the US Tax Court, US district and bankruptcy courts, the Federal Court of Claims, and the Delaware Court of Chancery. He has also testified in several arbitrations. He has served as an expert witness for the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and for various financial institutions, accounting firms, law firms, creditor committees, industrial companies, and individual taxpayers. Professor Erickson also has assisted corporations with SEC, IRS, and whistleblower investigations.

Professor Erickson’s work has involved numerous technical GAAP issues associated with Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) 740, such as deferred tax assets and valuation allowances. He has evaluated tax issues and GAAP accounting and disclosure requirements associated with financing transactions, structured transactions, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, employee stock options, and restatements. He has also addressed debt versus equity issues and the nature of, and proper accounting for, various financial instruments.

Professor Erickson has also addressed the value and use of tax assets (e.g., net operating losses (NOLs)), the role of taxes in the measurement of damages, accountant malpractice claims, and forensic analyses of financial accounting and tax accounting records.

Professor Erickson is the coauthor of the textbook Taxes & Business Strategy, currently in its 6^th edition, among other publications. Before entering academia, Professor Erickson served as a consultant in various business disputes on issues relating to lost profits, damages, valuation, and accounting fraud. He has been a CPA for more than 30 years.

Representative cases include:

• US v. Caterpillar
• Tribune Media v. Commissioner of the IRS
• Hyatt v. Commissioner of the IRS
• Freedman v. Weatherford International Ltd., et al.
• Chemtech Royalty Associates, L.P. v. United States
• Xilinx Inc. and Subsidiaries, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue,
• Selectica, Inc. v. Versata Enterprises, Inc., et al.
• Jade Trading, LLC v. United States
• Newby v. Enron
• Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. v. Enron